In today's class we discussed Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective figure in the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. We specifically discussed Sidney Paget's illustration of the text in The Man with the Twisted Lip" and "The Adventures of the Speckled Band" and how it worked with both the Victorian context and the text itself to create meaning. The discussions were informative as they opened my eyes to a variety of visual cues that I had not noticed.
Today, along with several of my other classmates, I had the pleasure of presenting and analyzing an image from one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. What I most enjoyed about this class was how the atmosphere of collective discussion ended up highlighting and emphasizing points of interest in the text, image, and context that I (as a presenter) had not previously considered. For example, in my question - which touched on visual cues - I had not considered the shading in the image as significant until Dr. Kooistra and my other classmates mentioned it.
Specifically in "The Man With the Twisted Lip," the contrast between a text and its imge become obvious, as do the fin-de-siecle ideologies that both represent. In the image of the man that is described as being a "professional begger," ideologies surrounding homelessness and disability are represented, refecting common stereotypes around both that were common in society at the time of illustrtion and publication.
Edward Moxon and Co. Publishing Firm was a former British publishing company located in London, England, that was founded by Edward Moxon. The publishing company was particularly renowned for publishing lavishly illustrated books and illustrated versions of already notable Victorian literature. In particular, the work of Alfred Tennyson, with which the publishing company had built a working relationship that spanned close to thirty years.
This is where Madame Restell built her brownstone mansion and ran her business where she would provide pills (abortifacents), operations, and even housing for women who wanted to have their baby in secret or perhaps even put it up for adoption. She would charge rich women more than poor women, working on a sliding scale depending on the specific woman's needs.Through these various services, she accumulated a considerable amount of wealth that seemed to save her from persecution for a long time.
